Isotechnika shares surge on China development pact

Highlighting the emerging role of China's drug developers, Canada's Isotechnika Pharma has inked a development pact with 3SBio, earning a $6 million payment and a bump in its share price. 3SBio is paying $1.5 million upfront and making a $4.5 million investment in Isotechnika in exchange for the Chinese autoimmune and transplant-related development rights to voclosporin. Isotechnika shares jumped 42 percent on the news, but only topped out at about 30 cents. The developer has been...

Report: China readies $1.5B plan to bolster biotech

In a bid to break out of its dependence on manufacturing and cheap labor, the Chinese government is planning to invest $1.5 billion into new drug development between 2011 and 2016. And biotechnology is one of seven emerging industries that the Asian powerhouse will use to spearhead the next big step in its economic development, according to a report in China's 21st Century Business Herald. The National Development and Reform Commission is leading the effort on biotech, according to the business...

HHS report underscores big shift to foreign drug trials

A new report from the inspector general of HHS highlights just how dependent drug developers have become on overseas clinical trials. And the New York Times raises some serious questions over the kind of regulatory oversight, or lack of it, that foreign drug trials are subject to. According to the HHS report, 80 percent of all the drugs approved in 2008 relied on foreign trials to some extent, with 78 percent of all enrollees recruited at foreign sites. And a total of 10 new drugs were approved...

Albany Molecular looks to Asia as it chops U.S. staff

Just a day after Charles River Laboratories' CEO was touting the cheaper, better educated workers it could hire in China, Albany Molecular Research cut 80 contract research jobs in the U.S. as it pushed ahead with plans to hire 180 in India and Singapore. "Our customers are asking for this, and this is where the demand is," AMRI spokeswoman Andrea Schulz told the Albany Times-Union. The contract research operation is investing $30 million in Asia as it consolidates labs in the U.S.,...

Novartis CEO plans to keep China R&D ops in-house

While Charles River's $1.6 billion deal to buy WuXi PharmaTech may have put the spotlight on China's growing role on the global contract research stage, Novartis' new CEO insists the pharma giant plans to handle most of its own R&D work in China in-house. "It should be a strategy owned by Novartis and directed by Novartis," says Joe Jimenez, who is pushing ahead with plans to invest a billion dollars in a Shanghai R&D complex that will employ around 500 scientists--all on the company's...

PPD claims top China CRO title as it opens vax center

PPD has opened a new vaccine research center in the heart of China's sprawling biotech hub, staking its claim as the biggest CRO in China on the same day that Charles River Laboratories unveiled its $1.6 billion acquisition of WuXi PharmaTech. PPD opened the research complex in Taizhou China Medical City so it can host vaccine trials that require far more people than most other countries demand for a vax trial but with a far shorter amount of time needed for enrollment. "The vaccines market is...

China’s growing appeal to the global CRO industry

I had a chance to speak with Charles River Laboratories' Chris Perkin recently about the CRO's burgeoning presence in China. Perkin, who established Charles River's preclinical ops in China, was distinctly bullish on the country as the coming place in the industry for animal research. One big reason: Local authorities were quick to accommodate the company's need for doing things like importing rat models that meet Western standards. "China had no regulations to import rats," Perkin--who's...

Charles River Labs buys China’s WuXi for $1.6B

Charles River Laboratories (NYSE: CRL) is wagering $1.6 billion that the future of contract research organizations lies in China. The Boston-based CRO announced early today that it has struck a deal to buy WuXi PharmaTech for $21.25 a share in cash and stock. Charles River has been deeply involved in expanding its Chinese operations for the past several years. And this new deal will increase the size of its footprint in China considerably. "This transaction revolutionizes the contract...